I’ve tried to avoid politics in my blog of late, but I can’t contain myself any longer.
Friday night I went to see Team America, the loony puppet movie by the creators of South Park (the title of this post if from one of the songs in the movie). While parts of it were funny, parts of it were just so ugly, and so hate-filled, that I left with a really bad taste in my mouth. I understand the points they were trying to make—they believe it’s hypocritical for Hollywood actors to champion peace, but I don’t agree. I think anyone who has a public forum should use it for good, and championing peace, to this soon-to-be-mother, seems to me to be a good thing that should be rewarded, not ridiculed. Perhaps Michael Moore can be a little heavy handed with his political views, but at least he acknowledges that his movies are based on his opinions. Seeing the puppet Michael Moore blow himself up as a suicide bomber wasn’t cute, or funny, or anything other than ugly and violent.
In the light of full disclosure, I probably wouldn’t have found the movie nearly as offensive if I wasn’t a) pregnant, b) pregnant with boys I’m terrified will have to go to war, and c) so wrapped up in this current election.
However, my current mood, combined with some recent press, has prompted me to speak about politics again.
In Sunday’s edition of The New York Times, in the Magazine, Ron Suskind published a lengthy article about George Bush’s “faith-based presidency” called Without a Doubt. I would link you to it, but you have to register to read the Times on line (although registration is free), so just go to www.nytimes.com and you can do so.
I’ve decided to include these two quotes, just to give you a taste. The emphasis added is mine:
A cluster of particularly vivid qualities was shaping George W. Bush's White House through the summer of 2001: a disdain for contemplation or deliberation, an embrace of decisiveness, a retreat from empiricism, a sometimes bullying impatience with doubters and even friendly questioners.………………………………
In the summer of 2002, after I [Ron Suskind] had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
Who besides guys like me are part of the reality-based community? Many of the other elected officials in Washington, it would seem. A group of Democratic and Republican members of Congress were called in to discuss Iraq sometime before the October 2002 vote authorizing Bush to move forward. A Republican senator recently told Time Magazine that the president walked in and said: ''Look, I want your vote. I'm not going to debate it with you.'' When one of the senators began to ask a question, Bush snapped, ''Look, I'm not going to debate it with you.''
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Now, call me crazy, but don’t we all live in a fucking “reality-based community?” Not to mention the fact that having a president who “disdains contemplation or deliberation” fucking terrifies me.
Here’s my fucking reality:
In my reality, I’m not afraid of government-based healthcare, since my doctor isn’t in charge of my care anyway—my HMO is. They, and only they, decide what medications I’m allowed to take, even if they are not the best or most effective ones available (of course, I could pay for them out of pocket, but that isn’t realistic based on my financial reality). They will make the primary decisions about the birth and early care of my children. Not me, not doctors, but money grubbing HMO idiots. Could the government really do any worse?
My reality is that if the partial-birth abortion (a hideous, and inaccurate, name) stays in effect, if—God forbid—something went wrong in this pregnancy, and I had to terminate the pregnancy to save my own life or to save my babies from awful pain, my doctor would be forbidden from doing a dilation and extraction procedure. And if the evil, evil John Ashcroft had his way, he’d be able to access my medical records to find out if I did have a d & e, and could then prosecute my doctor and me.
My reality is that my mother-in-law has Alzheimer’s and could benefit from stem-cell research. Who am I to object? I’d gladly donate some of my frozen embryos if I thought it would help her.
My reality is that I have an old friend who has already done three tours in Iraq and he’s in the Reserves. He’s lost his job and nearly lost his house because of the “backdoor draft” you hear John Kerry talking about. He could lose more—his life—if forced to go there again. Even the soldiers in Iraq are beginning to mutiny because they see the futility of this war.
Clearly, I’m voting for John Kerry, and obviously I hope you do as well. Surprisingly enough, The New York Times, that old conservative paper, has endorsed John Kerry. Here is a quote (again, emphasis added is mine:
Senator John Kerry goes toward the election with a base that is built more on opposition to George W. Bush than loyalty to his own candidacy. But over the last year we have come to know Mr. Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo. We like what we've seen. He has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on the incumbent.We have been impressed with Mr. Kerry's wide knowledge and clear thinking - something that became more apparent once he was reined in by that two-minute debate light. He is blessedly willing to re-evaluate decisions when conditions change. And while Mr. Kerry's service in Vietnam was first over-promoted and then over-pilloried, his entire life has been devoted to public service, from the war to a series of elected offices. He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core.
That’s what I want to see in the White House—a smart man with a strong, moral core. Not a fundamentalist cowboy who uses his faith to justify all kinds of wrong action, and uses the excuse of "God is speaking through me" (oh yes, he's actually said that, more than once) to never change his mind.
There is a touch of good news—for the first time, Slate Magazine has Kerry leading with more Electoral College votes than Bush (they base their info by collecting information from 76 nationwide polls). It’s quite heartening to see Bush’s face under the word “loser.”
